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Monday, December 5, 2016

Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP, said at a press conference Wednesday that Donald Trump "clings to the hateful and intolerant rhetoric of this country's shameful history — a history that we know all too well."Sarah McCammon/NPR

PREVIOUSLY:Donald Trump said the system is rigged. He said hedge fund managers are “getting away with murder.” He said that he’d “tax Wall Street.” He called Washington D.C. corrupt and promised to “drain the swamp.” He said his opponent Hillary Clinton was too cozy with the banks, as epitomized by her closed-door paid speeches. He said Clinton’s vice presidential nominee, Tim Kaine, was “owned by the banks” and that he, Trump, would break them up. Trump closed his campaign with an ad bashing Goldman Sachs and George Soros, using classically anti-Semitic phrases.And now, according to The New York Times, ABC and CBS, the president-elect has chosen a second-generation Goldman Sachs partner who worked for George Soros before starting a hedge fund and buying IndyMac, a failing California bank that made billions while foreclosing on homeowners after the financial crisis.

Trump's signature education proposal calls for dedicating $20 billion in federal money to promote "school choice": market-driven education reforms that help families move away from what Trump has called "failing government schools" and instead choose private, religious, or charter schools. The movement for charter schools is bipartisan: Republicans and many centrist Democrats support it. But the DeVos family has been promoting a much more radical idea of choice—one that favors moving public funding to private and religious schools over charters.

One of the names being mentioned as Donald Trump’s secretary of labor is that of Andrew “Andy” Puzder, a former St. Louis lawyer who is now chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s.

Carson, who ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, told Fox News last month that he was considering the position. This was a shift from his earlier assertion that he wasn’t qualified for a Cabinet position.

Trump’s choice to nominate Carson is just the latest confirmation that he’s prioritizing loyalty over government experience. One of the president-elect’s first hirings was Steve Bannon, a former Breitbart executive with ties to white nationalists. Bannon was a close adviser to Trump during the campaign.

In 1986, a bipartisan majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected his nomination to a federal judgeship in the midst of charges of racial bias. For example, Sessions had criticized civil rights groups as “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” and accused them of trying to “force civil rights down the throats of people.” He also dubbed a white civil rights attorney a “disgrace to his race,” according to a witness, and reportedly called a black lawyer in his office “boy.” In his confirmation hearing, he admitted to referring to the Voting Rights Act as “a piece of intrusive legislation,” and he later opposed efforts to update the landmark law.

"We're the platform for the alt-right," Bannon told me proudly when I interviewed him at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July. Though disavowed by every other major conservative news outlet, the alt-right has been Bannon's target audience ever since he took over Breitbart News from its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, four years ago. Under Bannon's leadership, the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an "eclectic mix of renegades," accusing President Barack Obama of importing "more hating Muslims," and waging an incessant war against the purveyors of "political correctness."

Before he was a sometimes Talking TeeVee Pundit Head on CNN, Van Jones served as President Obama's "green jobs czar", who republicans, enabled by the media , was forced to resign amid controversy.On March 10, 2009, it was announced that Jones would serve as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.[2] Jones, while an ardent supporter of President Barack Obama, originally did not intend to work for the White House, later explaining "when they asked the question, I burst out laughing because at the time it seemed completely ludicrous that it would even be an option. I think what changed my mind was interacting with the administration during the transition process and during the whole process of getting the recovery package pulled together."[34]

His position with the Obama Administration was described by columnist Chadwick Matlin as "switchboard operator for Obama's grand vision of the American economy; connecting the phone lines between all the federal agencies invested in a green economy."[35] Jones did not like the informal "czar" term sometimes applied to his job, and described his position as "the green-jobs handyman. I'm there to serve. I'm there to help as a leader in the field of green jobs, which is a new field. I'm happy to come and serve and be helpful, but there's no such thing as a green-jobs 'czar.'"[36]

After his White House appointment, Jones began receiving criticism from media sources such as WorldNetDaily and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, who featured Jones on fourteen episodes of his show.[37][38] They criticized Jones for his past political activities, including his involvement with STORM and his support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a prisoner sentenced to death for murdering a police officer in a highly controversial trial.[39][40] In July 2009 Color of Change, an organization that Jones founded in 2005 and left in 2007, launched a campaign urging advertisers on Beck's Fox News show to pull their ads, in response to comments by Beck stating President Obama has a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."[41] In September 2009, a video on YouTube was circulated of a February 2009 lecture at the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative at which Jones used strong language to refer to Congressional Republican lawmakers, and himself, when conveying that Democrats need to step up the fight. Jones was asked how Republicans could manage to pass measures through the Senate without a supermajority, yet Democrats, with 58 votes of their own, were being blocked by Republicans. Jones explained, "Well, the answer to that is, they're assholes. As a technical, political kind of term. And Barack Obama is not an asshole. Now, I will say this: I can be an asshole, and some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama, are going to have to start getting a little bit uppity."[42][43][44] Jones apologized, "for the offensive words I chose to use during that speech. They do not reflect the views of this administration, which has made every effort to work in a bipartisan fashion, and they do not reflect the experience I have had since I joined the administration."[44]Then-Representative Mike Pence (R-Indiana), the chairman of the Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, publicly criticized Jones, while Senator Kit Bond (R-Missouri) urged Congress to investigate Jones' "fitness" for the position.[45][46]Bob Beckel, a Fox News political analyst who was formerly an official in the Carter administration, became the first prominent Democrat to call for Jones' resignation.[47] In response to the criticisms, Jones issued a statement that said, "In recent days some in the news media have reported on past statements I made before I joined the [Obama] administration – some of which were made years ago. If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize."

"Given recent revelations concerning the associations and statements of the president's green jobs czar, Van Jones should resign his position and if he is unwilling to do so, the president should demand his resignation. His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this Administration or the public debate," Pence said.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Before EYE type another word please accept my apologies for the sparse postings. EYE must admit the "election" of Donald Trump through me for a loop. EYE was so sure there were more of us than there were of them. Time will tell if my faith in the American people is justified. EYE still refuse to believe the majority of the American people hate President Obama more than they love their country. But EYE have my groove back and EYE am fired up and ready to go.

Guinier is probably best known as President Bill Clinton's nominee for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in April 1993.[7][8][9]President Clinton withdrew his nomination in June 1993, following a wave of negative press that was brought on by her controversial writings, some of which even Clinton himself called "anti-democratic" and "very difficult to defend".[10]Conservative journalists, as well as RepublicanSenators, mounted a campaign against Guinier's nomination. Guinier was infamously dubbed a "quota queen," a phrase first used in a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Clint Bolick, a Reagan-era Justice Department official.[11] The term was perceived by some to be racially loaded, combining the "welfare queen" stereotype with "quota," a buzzword used to challenge affirmative action.[12] In fact, Guinier was an opponent of racial quotas.[13]Some journalists also alleged that Guinier's writings indicated that she supported the shaping of electoral districts to ensure a black majority, a process known as "race-conscious districting." One New York Times opinion piece claimed that Guinier was in favor of "segregating black voters in black-majority districts." Guinier was portrayed as a racial polarizer who believed—in the words of George Will—that "only blacks can represent blacks."In the face of the negative media attention, many DemocraticSenators, including David Pryor of Arkansas, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois (the only African-American serving in the Senate at that time)[14] informed President Clinton that her interviews with senators were going poorly and urged him to withdraw Guinier's nomination.[15]President Clinton took the senators' advice and withdrew Guinier's nomination on June 4, 1993. He stated that Guinier's writings "clearly lend themselves to interpretations that do not represent the views I expressed on civil rights during the [presidential] campaign."[16] Guinier, for her part, acknowledged that her writings were often "unclear and subject to vastly different interpretations," but believed that the political attacks had distorted and caricatured her academic philosophies.[16]William T. Coleman Jr., who had served as Secretary of Transportation under President Gerald Ford, wrote that the withdrawal was "a grave [loss], both for President Clinton and the country. The President's yanking of the nomination, caving in to shrill, unsubstantiated attacks, was not only unfair, but some would say political cowardice."[17]

Although he handled the nomination miserably, the President had good reason to drop it. Ms. Guinier's writings suggest that, despite her obvious talents as a civil rights attorney, she was not the right person to be Washington's civil rights enforcement chief. Mr. Clinton, already wobbling from other setbacks, had no stomach for a fight he couldn't win on behalf of a candidate whose views he now says he does not entirely endorse.Without question the nominee herself created the basic problem. Her law review articles about voting rights -- poorly written, provocative and easy to caricature -- gave right-wing snipers a broad target for charges of radicalism. But they also alarmed moderate readers, including longtime supporters of the Voting Rights Act, who feared her extreme-sounding enforcement notions would discredit and imperil that valued law.

Donald Trump ran a presidential campaign that stoked white racial resentment. His choice for attorney general — which, like his other early choices, has been praised by white supremacists — embodies that worldview. We expect today’s senators, like their predecessors in 1986, to examine Mr. Sessions’s views and record with bipartisan rigor. If they do, it is hard to imagine that they will endorse a man once rejected for a low-level judgeship to safeguard justice for all Americans as attorney general.

Political Directors, CNN's David Chalian and MSNBC's Chuck Todd, along with many hosts and Anchors BEAR THE RESPONSIBILITY of a President Trump. Responsibility for the damage to race relations, the damage to women and families, the damage to Mother Earth due to the advancement of dirty energy and quashing of clean energy corrective measures is yours. Responsibility for the thousands of American men that will DIE in foreign oil wars as a result of the oil and weapons industries dictating policy to the Republican led government is yours. The responsibility for the many thousands of unnecessary gun deaths here in the United States due to the gun lobby and their control over Congress now, etc. is yours. Congratulations again.

MSNBC friend: We in media have blood on our hands. Treated him like a legit candidate, which he isn't & her like a criminal, which she isn't

The third reason Trump won is America is filled with racists.I don’t care if you don’t want to hear it. It’s true.Since the election of President Obama in 2008, the growth of race-based hate groups has exploded. The hateful rhetoric surrounding racial discussions is at an all-time high, and much of that is due to the very purposeful division of this country by conservative groups.They have spent the last eight years convincing many of those stupid white people I mentioned above that Obama was plotting to steal their hard earned money and turn it over to the black people so they can buy spinning rims and lobster with food stamps. Through Fox News, dozens of fake-news websites and hundreds of conservative talking heads on radio, they have spread a message of fear and anger to a group of people who took the bait and swallowed it.

For diehard Democrats holding out hope that they won’t have to live through a Donald Trump presidency, there is a last, incredibly long shot for them latch onto — a surprise twist in the Electoral College.Though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 200,000, Trump has won the minimum of 270 electoral votes necessary to be elected president. As of late Wednesday, he had 290 to Clinton’s 228.According to the Constitution, chosen electors of the Electoral College are the real people who will vote for president, when they meet on Dec. 19 in their respective state capitals.However, there is nothing stopping any of the electors from refusing to support the candidate to whom they were bound or abstaining from voting.There’s even a name for it: becoming a “faithless elector.”

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

UPDATE: The Business Insider reported: "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday called her criticism of National Football League player Colin Kaepernick "inappropriately dismissive and harsh" and said she should not have commented on his protest against racism and police brutality in the United States." In the NYTimes Justice Ginsburg said she should have declined to comment.

“Some of you have inquired about a book interview in which I was asked how I felt about Colin Kaepernick and other N.F.L. players who refused to stand for the national anthem,” she wrote in a note to reporters. “Barely aware of the incident or its purpose, my comments were inappropriately dismissive and harsh. I should have declined to respond.”

We're getting close now. Election season is almost over, and I can barely wait for it to end. I suspect that a lot of folks feel the way I do now. I'm about numb from the droning din of the election antics, the daily charges and counter-charges pitched across the partisan divide of character assassinations.Today, one thing stood out to me, and it had nothing to do with the election. It is about Colin Kaepernick. And one of the Supreme Court's icons, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Katie Couric interviewed her, and asked about Kaep's "taking the knee." (By the way, without any disrespect to the venerable Rosa Parks, my opinion is that "taking the knee" is preferable in these circumstances and this time period to "staying seated" because, now, it is more difficult to criticize a person on bended knee than one protesting by staying seated.) I am flabbergasted at Justice Ginsburg's response.

"When asked by Couric how she feels about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and other athletes, refusing to stand for the anthem, Ginsburg replied, "I think it's really dumb of them...I think it's a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn't lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act...What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that."

"All I can say is that I am sensitive to discrimination on any basis because I have experienced that upset...I looked at that sign, and I said, 'I am a Jew, but I'm an American, and Americans are not supposed to say such things," she recalled.

Whiplash!

On the one hand, a carefully calibrated, peaceful, prominent protest against oppression is characterized by a Supreme Court Justice as "dumb...terrible...ridiculous" even as she expresses in the interview that she is "sensitive to discrimination" while taking issue with the protesters "point of view."

Without doubt, the esteemed Justice is much smarter and accomplished than I, but her response exposes a duplicity of her position of epic proportions.

Colin was clear and explicit in his statement.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."Our flag and anthem declare our national principles.

My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all.My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith.I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and humanity.I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.

I take the knee with Kaep, hand over heart, - and encourage you to, too, at every opportunity.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Alabama Political Reporter has obtained an email in which members of a special interest group appear to openly discuss how they hope to influence the Huntsville City Council in return for their organization’s campaign donations.

The author of the email writes,“If Devyn wins, that balance of power will definitely shift, and our mayor/council leadership teams in both Huntsville and Madison could be the strongest in years. We need to all be very active in making that happen by reaching out to everyone we know in Huntsville District 1.”

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

We can’t go to the grocery store. We can’t buy cigarillos. We can’t sell CDs. We can’t walk down the street in our own neighborhood. We can’t look too threatening. We can’t ask a cop why he stopped us. We cannot breathe too loud. We can’t play music too loud. We can’t need help with our broken down cars. We can’t sit in our cars and read. We just can’t BE. and it’s frustrating. Well, there’s frustrating and there’s this. This is beyond frustrating. This is appalling. This is disgusting. This is infuriating. This? This is traumatizing. We are being lynched.

White people, I’m talking to you. THIS. IS. YOUR. PROBLEM. TO. FIX. Y’all got some work to do, because this system that y’all keep on privileging from, you’ve got to help us dismantle it. Because those of us who are Black and Brown. We have tried. You created this robot, and it is yours to deactivate. My skinfolk don’t have the passcode. This is your monster to slay.

Trump did not make people racists and bigots. Trump just encouraged them to come out of the shadows and be proud about being one

My white friends, I beg of you, I plead with you, to be deliberately, unapologetically, and relentlessly anti-racist. Use the power in your privilege to shift the narrative. Stop relying on People of Color to lead and fight this fight on our own. We need you to feel urgency and responsibility around building anti-racist movements in your communities and in your networks. We need you be proactive and strategic, and willing to change your own realities to transform our country into one that works on behalf of everycitizen. We need you to step up to the plate, piss some people off, and rock the boat. If everyone around you is comfortable and at peace, and if no one around you thinks you’ve lost your mind, you aren’t there yet.

Although the Seldon Center, the HCS alternative school according to page 17 of the current Student Handbook, isn’t due to close until the end of the year, the Pinnacle era has begun. This is from the contract between The Pinnacle Schools (TPS) and the HCS:

C1. Contract Period: The initial period for this Agreement will be a combination of a short academic term from February 2012 to July 2012 and an additional academic year from August 1 through July 31, 2013. The 2013 – 2014 Agreement year (August 1, 2013 through July 31, 2014) shall automatically renew unless the Superintendent provides TPS written notification that HCS will not renew at least 60 days prior to the commencement of the next Agreement year.

2011 – 2012 (short academic period) – The cost to Huntsville City Schools will be $360,000 for 75 student slots. This amounts to a prorated cost of $4,800 per student. (This cost is based on a 6 month short term academic program HCS hereby agrees to pay TPS/ERTP, as compensation for services relating to this agreement, the sum of $159,688 for 5 contractual beds at Elk River Treatment Program at a rate of $150 per diem/bed/year for the period January 1, 2012 – July 31, 2012.

Wardynski claims he checked with his lawyers and they said there was no conflict of interest before they said there was a conflict of interest. Confused yet?

Wardynski, a retired U.S. Army colonel, took the reins of the Huntsville city school system in 2011. Wardynski, whose wife passed away last December, said at the press conference that he will soon remarry.

His fiance is Karen Lee, CEO of Pinnacle Schools, an alternative placement school that handles discipline problems for Huntsville City Schools. Pinnacle has had a contract with the system since 2012.The contract was under consideration for modification tomorrow, said school board president Laurie McCaulley."Earlier this summer Ms. Lee and I began dating," said Wardynski at the press conference. "I have talked to ethics attorneys and I shared with responsible authorities with the school system when I felt that it was an issue.

"It's my intention to marry Ms. Lee in December and have a life."He said there was no current conflict of interest because state ethics laws apply to relatives, not dating relationships.

Faux outrage alert! Trump supporters have their knickers in a knot because Hillary Clinton had the nerve to say out loud what a lot of people were thinking. That's right, they can dish out the name calling, personal attacks, and insults but they can't take them. EYE don't condone name calling as a rule, but in this case, if the name fits you must accept.

The trouble with bias started long ago, and it was mostly created by Fox News, which began the practice of spewing slanted commentary dressed up like news reports to reinforce a political viewpoint. At the same time, Fox, with its helpers around the conservative media landscape, painted any and all reporting that fell even slightly to the left of the far-right line it created as “liberal bias.”

Covered by that broad brush was, of course, facts.And somewhere in the midst of this massive media shift, factual reporting – the only sort of truly unbiased reporting there is – was replaced by “fair reporting.”

deplorable is defined as an adjective meaning either 'amentable' or 'deserving censure or contempt,' a synonym of 'wretched” or 'abominable.' But Clinton’s use in the plural, deplorables, marks the word as a noun—and deplorable is not defined as a noun in Merriam-Webster dictionaries. (Deplorableness is given as the noun form.)Clinton’s use of deplorables is ambiguous: the word could be defined here as ‘people who are deplorable’ or ‘qualities or characteristics that are deplorable.’ Part of the ambiguity comes from the novelty of the usage, since deplorable is rarely used as a noun in this way.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Madison Police Officer Eric Parker is back from leave and headed for active duty today after Madison's acting police chief decided he did not violate policy in the sidewalk stop and takedown of an Indian pedestrian that led to federal civil rights charges and international publicity.

Madison, AL Police Officer Eric Parker avoided a conviction after two mistrials. In the first mistrial the black jurors refused to acquit, and in the second trial, the white jurors refused to acquit. Two strikes and you're out said the Federal Judge.

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Welcome to Redeye's Front Page!

I didn't plan or want to start this blog. For three years years I had the privilege and honor of being a front pager at Left in Alabama. Friday, November 13,2009 was my unlucky day because my privileges were revoked. Prior to my privileges being revoked I was constantly being advised how to write, what to write, and finally informed if I wanted freedom of speech I needed to start my own blog.

I didn't leave Left in Alabama, Left in Alabama left me, literally. Despite sincere, begging and groveling I am not allowed to express my opinions there, and that's a pity since it's supposed to be the blog of record for progressive, informed, democrats, but the Righty's have more privileges.

I don't have any illusions as to my "influence" or importance in the world, but I love my country, and in my own way I hope to make a difference because I want to make this world we live in a better place for everyone.

This sandbox is a blog for progressive politics, ideas, and current events. I encourage and welcome your comments, criticism, debate, and discussion. I only ask you to refrain from personal attacks, insults, and name calling of fellow bloggers. Attack the issue(s) not the person. Tolerant people can agree to disagree without being disagreeable.

If you want to know more about me, where I stand and what I stand for I invite you to read my writings at Left in Alabama for a historical perspective.

Contact me redeyeblog.alabama@yahoo.com

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